sandrinepal's reviews
1234 reviews

This Country Is No Longer Yours by Avik Jain Chatlani

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

 This was a demanding read. The shifting diegesis and the weaving of historical facts and fiction make for a disorienting experience, at times. I found the book especially gripping, since I have been studying the history of US-Latin American relations in the 20th century for an exam this year. It was refreshing to see some of the information with which I have been grappling presented in narrative form.

I would argue that gaining a basic understanding of the events and protagonists of 1990s and 2000s Peru will serve the reader well. The book doesn't do any of that legwork for you, and it pays to know, for instance, that El Doctor is Vladimiro Montesinos, head of SIN and shady CIA asset, while El Chino is President Fujimori. This is certainly not a historian's neutral account of the events: the SIN agent, the illegitimate daughter of Toledo, the ex-Senderistas, everyone has skin in the game here. Those voices are all the more haunting for it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

 This was just as delicious as "The Haunting of Hill House", with the added bonus that it has not been adapted into a weak Netflix series, so the magic in the pages remains intact. The best way I can think of describing the atmosphere of the book is that I spent about 80 pages trying to decide if the narrator, Merricat, was alive or dead. Shelving this as horror is probably misleading, too, though the hostility of the townsfolk and the denouement feel very in keeping with that genre. This concludes my 2-book introduction to Shirley Jackson. I am afraid to read any of her other books, in case they are not as good as these two. Change my mind. 

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

 This is easily the most historical of any Zadie Smith I've ever read and I was intrigued to see her delve into that genre after I so loved all her contemporary fiction. The character she builds around the semi-anonymous Mrs. Touchet for whom Dickens signed a book is layered and fascinating. There's proto-feminism, there's the seeds of white guilt, there's an (inner) embracing of her sexuality. She's both subservient to Ainsworth and his dominatrix; being down-on-her-luck and female seals her fate, but she clearly sees the foibles of the coterie of literary men Ainsworth associates with. As for the titular fraud, ostensibly Sir Roger Tichborne, his trial really brings to light a kind of popular discontent that rings all too familiar to 2024 ears. Here is a man who purports to be an aristocrat, and yet the masses close ranks around him in the face of rejection by the real nobility. They even (whoa) raise funds, sometimes through dubious schemes (whoa × 2) to pay for his legal expenses. I mean...

All in all, grade-A Zadie Smith, right here. I love her. The end. 

How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi: Collected Quirks of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math from Nerd Nite by Chris Balakrishnan, Matt Wasowski

funny informative lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

3.5

 The concept of Nerd Nites is very attractive (science! laughs! beer!—for some people) and sadly, I have never attended one, nor is there one near me. However, since my day job involves a lot of nerdiness, I can embrace the concept vicariously through this book. And it is a good one, but alack, the collection format makes for fairly uneven quality. I get it, not every expert/scientist can be a consummate stand-up comedian. It's just that the juxtaposition of the ultra-funny and the plain earnest doesn't do the latter any favors.

Faves include: Cephalopods: The Impossibly Awesome Invertebrates, Finding Nemo(’s Sex): Sex Change and Gender Roles in Anemonefishes, The Mathematics of Gossip, Getting to Know Infinity, and Math for a Better City. Honorable mention to the dating apps essay. 

Our Hemisphere?: The United States in Latin America, from 1776 to the Twenty-First Century by Russell C. Crandall, Britta H. Crandall

challenging informative slow-paced

3.0

 What? It only took me four months to finish this book. And in the meantime, I also read over forty other books, so maybe that speaks to this tome's motivational abilities?

In all seriousness, I read this book in preparation for an exam. The scope of the exam is limited to the period from the inauguration of FDR to the end of Obama's second term (1933-2017). That means that there were quite a few chapters in "Our Hemisphere?" that I ended up reading purely for context (fun?). At first, the vignette format was very appealing to me, but in the long run, I found that it rather detracted from a kind of bird's eye view of US foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere. The similarities and differences in treatment of various coups and regime changes were inevitably harder to put together in the shuffle between countries. One notable exception were the three chapters about the US's "Supply Side" strategy in the War on Drugs in Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia, respectively. The juxtaposition of the three different efforts and the fact that they happened within 10-15 years of each other made comparisons and parallels easier to draw. 

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

 One word: delightful. This Old House meets Martha Stewart, raised on a healthy diet of Edgar Allan Poe and Henry James. I was so pleasantly surprised by this book after slogging through the 10-episode Netflix series (which, by the way, has precious little to do with Jackson's book: do NOT waste your time). This book is Goldilocks-right in length and tone. If you are attempting to lose sleep and/or check manically under your bed or behind the door every few minutes, this may not be the book. The eeriness level is genteel, just like an after-dinner parlor with a game of chess and a glass of brandy. But the characters have a sharp wit and their development is not formulaic. And don't even get me started on Mrs. Montague: how did *she* get there? The Laura Miller introduction in this edition (which I recommend saving for the end, if you want to avoid spoilers) mentions an excellent 1960s adaptation, and I do believe that's next on my to-watch list. 

Erasure by Percival Everett

challenging dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

 This was hardcore. The book-within-a-book, the dead artist interludes, the post-structuralist tangents (that are not really tangents), the fishing and woodworking... all of this begs to be read, as in read for a course. Or footnoted. Or CliffsNoted, I don't know. In short, I am not smart enough for this book, you guys. And I think it's a testament to Percival Everett's talent that I loved a book that I knew was at least in part flying over my head. I can see myself re-reading this and getting more out of it than I did this time. There are precious few books that leave me welcoming that particular impression. 

The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism by Jen Gunter

informative slow-paced

3.0

 This was heavy on the facts and a little haphazard on the feminism. I can't really speak to the worries about intersectionality that have been raised by other reviewers: to my mind, Dr. Gunter does acknowledge in the intro to the book that much work and research is needed to meet the needs of trans men and non-binary people when it comes to menopause. I honestly don't know what she could say beyond that. More than that, I was a little put off by how strident the tone grew at times. Don't get me wrong: there's every reason for females (of various ages) to be pissed off, on any number of counts. It seems to me, though, that the constant, low-grade seething is bad for your health.

Personally, I have yet to develop symptoms (of menopause, not feminism: I'm terminal, there) and since I'm the oldest of my siblings, I have few points of reference. It did feel good to read this in a middle-school-sex-ed kind of way: forewarned is forearmed, etc. Her writing style is commendably clear and informative, with the possible exception of the sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) mnemonic, which eventually drove me up a tree. I also did not realize just how recent the hormone controversy really was, or what its roots were. I sure as heck am not team Dr.Phil's-wife (or Oprah, for that matter, when it comes to making decisions about my health). However, I do recognize that it can be so hard to fully determine where you get data on which to base your choices. I mean, if it can be challenging for OB/GYNs to make those calls, what chance do we mere peons stand?

Long story short: this book gave me a lot to chew on. Mostly, it alerted me to the fact that, as I get longer in the teeth, information-gathering should really become a bigger part of my routine. 

The Guest by Emma Cline

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

 Perplexed as I was by the ending of this book, I went looking through Goodreads reviews for kindred spirits who might have a take on that atmospheric stumper. Imagine my dismay when I found a number of reviewers (many of them women, alas) lamenting the fall of Western civilization as foretold by the narrative POV of a 22-year old sex worker.

Sex. Worker. "There's sex in this!" Why, yes. Yes, there is. In fact, for Alex, sex is a primary currency. And if sex (or sex work) were an indication of the impending demise of literature, things would have gone to the dogs a long time ago. Émile Zola, Victor Hugo, Maupassant, La Traviata via Alexandre Dumas, and others all bear witness to the fact that sex work has never detracted from the quality of a work of fiction.

So what is the difference? What is raising hackles for people? The crude language? The fact of Alex's agency (misguided and/or harmful as it may turn out to be)? Truly, I would contend that people who are appalled at this character should give the portrayal of "good" people in the book a much closer read.

Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose by Nancy Springer

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

 Oops, I read all the Enola Holmes... again. This one had *celebrities*, y'all! Rudyard Kipling, his future wife, and Joseph Lister (father of antiseptic surgeries, not Listerine). It didn't do much for the plot, but it was fun to conduct parallel Google investigations as I read along. Anyway. A nefarious *working class* [horrors] organization kidnaps the genteel, if American [shudder], victim of a rabid dog's bite. Enola saves the day-yawn-, but in the course of this book, it feels as though Sherlock is turning into her low-key sidekick, which I am all for. There are some shenanigans and physical violence in this latest opus that I did not find truly in character. For instance, the real Enola is well above kicking groins, be it unintentionally. Of the three new ones, I would rank this one second to the Black Barouche, ahead of the Elegant Escapade. Alas, no actual mongoose, which is a real letdown, if we're being honest.